Apollo Theatre
180 S. New York Avenue,
Atlantic City,
NJ
08401
180 S. New York Avenue,
Atlantic City,
NJ
08401
4 people
favorited this theater
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Frick and Ward also state that the Apollo opened in April 1907. It was supposedly still standing when their directory was published in 1987. Joseph Fralinger who built it had also been the manager of the earlier Academy of Music.
According to the LHAT’s Frick/Ward 1987 “Directory of Historic American Theatres”, the Apollo “was erected by Joseph Fralinger to replace the Academy of Music which had burned in 1902”. It was a celebrated pre-Bway tryout house and roadshow house for many years, and went over completely to movies in 1934. The predecessor theatre, the Academy of Music, is listed under Atlantic City in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. The seating was 1,600; the house had electric illumination, was located on the ground floor and had 3 to 10 members of the house orchestra. The proscenium opening was 50 feet wide X 22 feet high, and the stage was 48 feet deep. Even way back in 1897 there were over 300 hotels there. The population was 22,000.
I remember the cheesy burlesque posters in the display cases in the early to mid 70s. The dancers all had exotic names like “Lotta Love” and so on. By that time the city was extremely poor shape.
The postcard that TC posted on June 28, 2006 @ 2:14pm. is a 1963 view of the theatre. If you look at the marquee reads.
Frank Sinatra
Come Blow Your Horn
Lee J. Cobb Molly Picon Barbara Rush
Here are two more photos from 1925:
http://tinyurl.com/ykyuwg
http://tinyurl.com/yhddbd
This should probably be closed/demolished. I doubt if the building is still standing as there isn’t much left on the Boardwalk other than casinos.
The main projectionist was Otto Bertoldi. One Summer day in 1971, I spent a few hours with him while he was running the MGM hit “Shaft” continuiosly. The projectors were Simplex E-7’s & the carbon arc lamps were Strong Mighty 90’s or Excelite’s. Otto told me that he had been working there since 1926, and showed a newsreel about Lindberg crossing the Atlantic Ocean on his first day. He said that the booth was once part of the original balacony know as “N-word Haven”. He showed me the ornate ceiling above the booth, and the large concrete steps that went down to a once, separate box office and entrance on NY. Ave.
We ventured into the Apollo around 1975…..like going into 1920…this old vaudeville like stage that curved out in the middle with bulbs along the edge…also old nouveau like candelabra on the walls…or at least I think it was the Apollo….that and the Strand I believe were the only theatres running. A great many theatres were still open in the late 60’s, we would catch 2 or 3 films a day if the weather was bad, being from a small town when we came to A.C. there was much to choose from. So I think by 1975 A.C. was in rough shape already before the casinos opened and had lost most of its movie palaces…..the casinos just finished off the old sites for development along with other old A.C. memories.
I believe sometime in the late 90’s I heard a news blurb from A.C. that a portion of an old building had collapsed (no injuries) and they said it was part of the old Apollo auditorium….could this be
correct?
If you look at the far end of the postacrd you can see the Roxy theater that was on Kentucky and the boardwalk.
1971 postcard:
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There is a hotel currently on the site of the former Apollo theater.
Old photos & drawings :
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I remember when the Apollo was a burlesque house in the mid 1970s. For some reason, burlesque was still popular years after its heyday. I recall another burlesque house on Virginia Avenue between Pacific Avenue and the Boardwalk. There was a city bus station just before you reached the boardwalk, and a novelty store as well, along with a few bars on the south side of the street. All of that was obliterated to make way for the Taj Mahal.
From The Encyclopedia of New Jersey p 802:
“The Apollo Theatre on New York Avenue became the top legitimate theater in the city. Originally the Academy of Music, it was erected to house an equestrian show but remodeled into a theater in 1892. After two major fires, it was rebuilt of brick in 1908 as a pre-Broadway house, but in 1924 it was converted into a movie theater.”
I am almost positive The Dirty Dozen was 1.85
There may have been some 70mm blow-ups in big markets like NYC and LA
The Dirty Dozen was directed by Robert Aldrich and I recall reading somewhere that he preferred 1.85 and never shot in scope. Flight of the Phoenix (the original), Longest Yard (the original)and Baby Jane were all 1.85 to 1 . Vera Cruz was 2.0 to 1, but was in the short lived “Superscope” format which was a process done in post production to films shot Academy Flat (1.33 to 1) as a cheap alternative to Cinemascope.
Howard
Do you remember seeing The Dirty Dozen? I remember it being in 1.85 ratio, but the dvd and other information shows it being in scope.
I saw the Dirty Dozen, The Odd Couple, Operation Grandslam, and Shaft, among others that I’ve forgotten when I was a kid growing up in AC. 2001 also played there, but I don’t recall if it was in 70mm (don’t recall if the theatre had 70mm capacity). It was a beautiful theatre with images of the Roman gods on the walls of the auditorium. I remember seeing Shaft there after the fire (the Franks
operated the Apollo by then) and part of the screen was burned and nothing had been done to repair or conceal it. Fortunately Shaft was 1.85 to 1 and basically what was left of the screen fit that ratio.
It was very bizarre to say the least(the first flame masked screen!!).
The theater was part of the Apollo circut chain and was sold to the miserable Frank family in the late 60’s. They ran it until 1973 when they closed it in Aug when the leaser ran out. They were right in the middle of the roadshow engagement of Last Tango In Paris which they than moved to the Margate Twin. In 1974, Chalie Tannembaum took it over and reopend it as the Apollo Burlesque theater. He closed it in 1977 when the thetaer part of the building was condemed. The front became a artist gallery for charectures. It burned and the following year was replaced with a clothing store. As far as I know an Embvasy Suites now sits there on tyhe corner of New York and the boardwalk.
The Apollo had some great movies in it’s day they had The Dirty Dozen all summer of 67, Memorial day weekend they had Guess WHo’s Coming To Dinner and in June they opened with Neil Simons The Odd Couple which ran all summer. They also replaced the screen in 68.
This theatre is on Gene Chesley’s “National List of Historic Theatre Buildings” which includes the names and locations of theatres for which information had been gathered as of 1979, with some additions made through 1989. One can assume then that the building was still standing as of 1979.
Interesting list of theatres:
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Nice view of the corner turret:
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